Red | He/him | 25+ | ESP-ENG-日本語 translator, character writer, VN game developer, professional aggressively supportive big brother (°▽°)/ Also known as akai-koutei!!
Into: BSD, TokyoRev, Eva, ALNST.
The following is material from the latest free Vivinos Patreon post (7/3/25).
Judging by 3 prayer shots in a not-so-large moodboard... it seems that faith was initially more prominently shown in Wiege, huh.
I can understand the change so much. The focus ended up placed in a much more mundane type of comfort and beauty (personal connections, daily happiness), which I loved a lot for the sheer humanity and brightness of it.
The bleakness of the kids' existence as a species raised for entertainment then death vs the comfort and calm they might've derived from faith IS super compelling, for sure. But shifting from that fully to the warmth and happiness humans could find in EACH OTHER is a wonderful angle, that large displays of faith might've overshadowed or muddled.
The creature in that one frame looks similar to this thing from TOP 3. I initially thought it was just funky lighting, but maybe this is the Great Anakt, or a statue of it? (It's referred to as a false god sometimes in side content.)
I wonder if a future video will discuss this faith in more detail?
Yes, exactly!! That's the Great Anakt, as they represent it. It shows up in the Hyuna "Our Diva" comic too!! Looking like Anakt Garden is crowned by the huge statue.
There's only glimpses and hints about it so far, all I've gathered is that the segyein keep the humans believing in it, not much more... so at the very least we know they pray to it!
The following is material from the latest free Vivinos Patreon post (7/3/25).
Judging by 3 prayer shots in a not-so-large moodboard... it seems that faith was initially more prominently shown in Wiege, huh.
I can understand the change so much. The focus ended up placed in a much more mundane type of comfort and beauty (personal connections, daily happiness), which I loved a lot for the sheer humanity and brightness of it.
The bleakness of the kids' existence as a species raised for entertainment then death vs the comfort and calm they might've derived from faith IS super compelling, for sure. But shifting from that fully to the warmth and happiness humans could find in EACH OTHER is a wonderful angle, that large displays of faith might've overshadowed or muddled.
An overview of the metaphors in Ivan's songs that allude to Till (or his feelings for Till), cause I wanted to have a comprehensive & updated list of ways he thinks about him, the way they are styled and the keywords that are used.
So, a little bit of visual metaphors and a LOT of lyric analysis incoming!
Firstly, I should start from the most well-known and the only one that's a VISUAL metaphor (afterwards, I'll be focusing on text): falling stars.
It'll help with the written parts a lot and it's good to get into context, so!!
At first, a night sky with falling stars is shown to be a sight Ivan is entranced by (moved to tears, even), a bit of beauty in the midst of his awful early childhood.
Eventually, though, they become associated with something else:
The many shots of falling stars alternated with Till facing the segyein "dog", an unreasonable but brave struggle, show that Ivan saw that same entrancing beauty in Till and began equating HIM to stars.
The way that, as he watches Till, stars appear on his eyes while his pupils dilate further establishes that connection.
The next sample appears on this flashback, during their escape attempt:
Ivan's eyes aren't shining brightly under the star shower, but only when Till proves to be unable to leave everyone at Anakt behind and backtracks their escape.
At such a moment, as he watches him go, Ivan appears to be bittersweetly appreciating the strange beauty in Till's nature again.
Do note that the visual cue at this point has evolved from detailed stars, to a bright white glow overtaking Ivan's pupils, but the meaning remains the same.
The same glow is displayed on-stage. The stage itself features a star shower, but Ivan's eyes don't consistently shine from it; they only shine when he's actively reviewing that memory with Till (and looking emotionally affected by it), and lose the glow when he's recomposed himself.
In other words!! Stars or a centered glow in Ivan's eyes = actively thinking of Till, the traits about him that Ivan is entranced by and the feelings he evokes. It is a visual metaphor and also a signal of strong unchecked emotions.
A handy comparison to show it properly:
With that good old visual covered, I can move on to text/lyrics!! My actual point for this post LMAOOOO.
A disclaimer: I said "Ivan songs" and not "songs by Ivan" intentionally. It's not quite relevant how each song was written in-universe; Black Sorrow, CURE and Nowhere are still songs through which Ivan's character is represented to us viewers. They are assigned to him and convey his POV. So, "Ivan songs".
Now, when it comes to lyrics, in Black Sorrow itself Till isn't alluded to as "star" or "sky" in text, but rather skipping right to "light"/"shining" (what the visual metaphor evolved to).
Here's an overall view of the lyrics with that first Till metaphor in green! 'Cause I find that color-coding different things I'm studying helps.
As for what's in red, these metaphors allude more to Ivan's feelings about Till, than Till himself. His "black sorrow" being the overall circumstance of loving hopelessly and "dark sea" an alternative description, which seems to describe the pressure of his feelings increasing whenever Till is close.
I've bolded "where your eyes reach" for later, hehe, as it is an incomplete reference in Black Sorrow alone.
Aaaand I've grayed out the mentions of "story" because they're common in Ivan songs (it's a character thing, very in line with his rationality, to see his own life in such a way and repeat this keyword), however, it's ambiguous whether he refers more to his story with Till or his life overall, and in this song I lean towards it being more personal than relationship-oriented.
To present it another way:
Looking at what the lyrics of CURE have next.
Here, instead of sticking to light/shining there's a literal appearance of "falling stars". Being consistent with Black Sorrow, this would again hold the meaning of the feelings Ivan holds for Till (though it is interesting that Till is the first to sing it; a lot could be said about the distribution of lines, but I'm sticking to my Ivan POV right now).
The keyword of "a story" is not ambiguous at all here, but turned into "our story". Again, it's a very Ivan thing, but the meaning is definitely shared this time.
Nowww Black Sorrow's "where your eyes reach" and CURE's "in your gaze, where I'm seen" tie in nicely to the repeated visual of Ivan looking at Till & Till not looking back that's been going around in the videos + side material, but by… pretty much denying that its an absolute.
While a common assumption in fandom is that Till simply never "looks back" at Ivan, these mentions in the lyrics make emphasis on the times (maybe scarce, maybe brief, maybe not) when Till DOES see him. And the weight these times seem to hold in Ivan's perspective.
Nowhere is much more about Ivan and his view of himself overall, but it does of course contain a few allusions to his feelings for Till, which are an important part of his life anyways.
Going ahead with a little bit more color-coding~
The "in love with you" intro is literal, not metaphorical, so nothing to add to that LOL. But hey, it's there and we know who he thinks about when it comes to love, so.
It's noteworthy that this audio plays in the background of the whole song, steadily, always present.
Anyway, other metaphors: first, the "my sky". It's debatable whether this is a valid Till metaphor, as Ivan thinks of Till more specifically as a night sky full of stars or the stars themselves, so it's not clear if it's just "sky". I'll leave that up to anyone's interpretation.
A stained history (or specifically, stained with blood) is, again, more of a personal Ivan metaphor for his life and unavoidable death, ambiguously tied to Till on occasions, non-ambiguous just in CURE.
"Nowhere, dyed in black" brings back the metaphors of Black Sorrow, wherein things going black or dark alludes to the weight of his feelings of love. Nowhere makes emphasis on Ivan's view of himself as stained and twisted, so this meaning is pretty consistent.
hat's it for the content of the 3 Ivan songs so far!
So here's a metaphor summary!!
Stars, falling stars, light, shining (& sky?) (visually: stars or a bright glow in the pupils) = Till, from Ivan's POV
Black sorrow, dark sea, going dark or black = Ivan's love in itself
A story, history, stained story, stained with blood = Ivan's view on his own life and destiny, ambiguously related to his relationship to Till
(Our story = definitely related to Till)
Where your eyes reach, in your gaze where I'm seen = Till looking at Ivan, another shared theme
While for example mizisua use a flower metaphor, comparisons to God and the keyword hope, ivantill use a star metaphor and very different keywords come up, such as light & dark. All pairs involve different themes, after all. It's interesting to look at and keep in mind, for me.
I think not a lot of credit is given to the lyrics in ALNST and how subtle but consistent they are with some things! It's nice.
A lot more that could be discussed about them, but this is all I wanted to go through for now.
(Can you tell I had fun color-coding stuff tho?? lmao)
Hope you had a lovely day with ur special one and i'm glad to see you here in tumblr friend :P!!
FLUFFLES? FLUFFY? FLUFFBALL?
I DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD A TUMBLR EITHER!! ASFDHFDHD THANK YOUUUU
I HAD A VERY NICE VALENTINE N I HOPE YOU DID TOO!!
You are easily one of the most full-of-love people I've met. I hope the world delivers to you all the love that you do deserve. How wonderful to still be in touch with you. MWAH MWAH MWAH
If Till and Hyuna died, how DO we go from Wiege to a happy ending?
A Happy End(s) ALNST theory post!
Just as Wiege met us with some potentially very unsatisfying deaths, it brought us two HUGE story elements in the teasers and video itself: cloning (VERY emphasized) and glimpses at AUs.
I'll regard those two first, then talk about the current phase of the story and finally how the new elements might tie in to the next part. BUT BEAR IN MIND THIS IS ONLY IN THE CASE that Till and Hyuna are indeed dead. And also, that it's just a theory that's been bouncing in my head.
Firstly: while we did get allusions to artificiality around Luka before, it was in the teaser phase for Wiege that we got the straight-up confirmation about cloning being involved. (Of course, if more is said about this and how it works "clones" may stop being the more adequate word, but for now it's what I'll be calling them.)
There was material of him and his clones in the MV as well, several shots actually. That + posting about it separately makes it feel to me like it was important for us to know.
For this part of the story, knowledge of this element was intentionally given and highlighted.
Secondly: Wiege is the first instance so far where AUs appear within the series itself. We were shown both HS AU and Actor AU (which COULD be one modified "modern world, normal life" AU anyway).
I'm not sure if there's a second purpose to this, I've got theories below, but at the very least, these glances are meant to evoke that "they did enjoy some happiness, they could've lived happily if their world wasn't like it is" feeling.
Now, about the current state of the story and where it left off:
I don't think anyone's wrong to feel that Till's death is kinda strange (as it left plenty of his inner journey unfinished, just as he was opening his eyes to things, specially about Ivan) and that Hyuna's was too sudden (from mismanaged rebel fire, no less!).
However, it might be because the story can AFFORD to be "careless" with such deaths.
Because at the same time, we're being told "cloning does exist in this world, remember?" as well as "think about other lives (AUs)".
I mean, look at the order of things at the end of Wiege:
We have THREE main characters who died VERY recently (Till and Hyuna, but also Ivan given the weirdly short time spanned between CURE and Blink Gone),
the protagonist who's next step is to rage against the system,
and the character who brought the cloning element to the story.
To expand on that: Mizi always being at the forefront of official content, being the first focus character (who also opened the story with her monologue on human history and the loss of her love), the one with the from-the-stage-to-rebellion line and the most change / development makes her the story-driving force of ALNST. In other words, Mizi is the slowly-delivered protagonist.
I think that much has been kinda visible for a while. And now, the spotlight is on her all the more.
She will doubtlessly want to do SOMETHING, after all this unfair death.
Hyuna's goodbye speech was aimed to inspire Luka to live on, embrace his humanity and "live with love", wishing for him the same medicine that Hyuna's life outside gave her.
It ought to make him switch out of his compliant, segyein-inclined ways to side with humankind; whether he does so genuinely or just for Hyuna is the same.
So we have Mizi, the protag who NEEDS to do something now. And Luka, the guy who MIGHT WANT to do something now... who just happens to know about the segyein's cloning methods. You see where I'm going?
It's pretty out-there! and doubtlessly kinda nutty!!
But to lay it down explicitly, here's my two Happy End theories:
Theory 1: willingly or not, Luka helps Mizi revive or restore the others in a way that involves the cloning tech he knows.
Till, Hyuna and Ivan's bodies are all at hand.
I thought it was really odd for CURE and Blink Gone to have such little time between them, but seeing now that this fact makes Ivan's death almost as recent, I have my suspicions about it being intentional. His body may be reachable. (I swear to god, if this revival theory turns true and they DON'T include Ivan I'll never recover.)
As for Sua, who died longer ago, I do believe she can also be brought back, just with more difficulty (tbh, fitting for Mizi's first loss to be the last recovery). But since this belief hinges on patreon paid content, I won't disclose it here. Moots n friends with patreon access can ask!
(There's also one patreon post that I have as support for this overall theory that's also paid content and won't be disclosed publicly, but again, go ahead and ask if interested and I'll provide both, so long as you prove you ARE supporting Vivinos' patreon. I don't distribute what I'm not allowed to distribute.)
But that's the first theory. Everyone is recovered, they fight back and live on.
Theory 2: just a vague idea. Instead of a revival route for the characters, the story might take a route that relies more on the AUs they showed us, which is why I said I'm unsure of their purpose.
Maybe it's a route where they DO stay frustratingly dead in the main story but we shift our focus to the AUs? Or a terrible ending is reached in the main story, but it turns out to have been Actor AU all along? I don't lean towards this a lot, but hey, it's another possibility.
(And of course, Theory 3: somehow Till and/or Hyuna survive, the segyein don't really have a good read on people's vitals so they were marked as dead when they're not, and the 4 tough it out the long way lmao.)
As things are now, I think the most about revivals. Cloning and bending life-death have been hinted for so long.
I would make sense both for Luka and Mizi's development to act towards that (Luka switching sides as well as touching upon his individuality trauma, Mizi becoming a bigger and more active force in the rebellion to fulfill her protagonist role against the system that subjected her to all this horror and loss), as well as making the happy ending Vivimeng talked about fully possible.
Let me know what you think!
Again, this is only a theory. But if you've read all of it, thank you!
There's a big difference between knowing for a fact that you're a human being and getting to FEEL part of humankind. That's a thing that I feel Ivan sorely lacked. Some of his issues can definitely be traced back to it.
There's three things we know for certain about Ivan's early childhood nowadays, so let me start from those:
There were other humans around him in the slums, at least other children (for now it doesn't seem there were adults around, or none who would approach or care for the children).
However, we also know Ivan did not learn social behavior properly; for example, how or when to smile.
Going by the lonely tone of the song Nowhere and its emphasis on having no one, plus the previous point, we can infer there was no meaningful social contact with any people he knew/saw.
Ivan has been described as someone who is always learning to survive and his time in the slums must've been the same, after all; it's most likely that the other kids were competition to him (for food or other resources), threats or simply strangers with whom connections were never made.
That's to say, there were humans around Ivan but no "human community".
And that's the thing: take someone who went through a critical developmental stage with no one to care for or be cared by, learn social behavior with or practice the emotional exercises of understanding and empathy - ask that someone what "being a part of humankind" feels like, and what can he even make of it? It must not mean much more than categorizing a species, no feeling involved. And anyway, what difference does it make if there's anything else to say or not?
It's not like those are easy questions. None of the ALNST cast, with all their limitations, would be able to respond comprehensively.
But it changes things, the differences are there.
There are things that Till knows, from having a mother, learning from her and being enriched emotionally by their interaction, that I don't think he could describe but certainly has within him. Or Hyuna, who had a brother to feel that family bond and sense of community with, learning all sorts of positive social skills and having a heart full of room for empathy as she always looked out for the little Other Person next to her.
Beyond knowing their species, they know what it MEANS to be the rare and amazing human creature from these experiences of connecting, teaching, being taught, holding things in common, giving and receiving love. On an instinctual level they accessed what it feels like to be "part of humankind", which is so cool about them!!
Then you have cases like Mizi being too trusting of aliens because she was raised to feel community with one, Sua being mostly withdrawn because she didn't have a lot of warmth and community around her, Luka who was deprived of everything and then clung too hard to his first proper bond...
And Ivan, with his empty circumstances. There are a million things Ivan didn't learn and doesn't KNOW he lacked.
Of course that with his background he'd end up 1: being defensive by nature, having selfish tendencies, trouble processing emotion and socially weird habits and 2: feeling like a twisted being because of it, which is such a core aspect of his character. A human with less humanity but no idea why or how.
He adapted himself a lot once adopted, of course, and caught up an even bigger lot in his time in Anakt Garden. But I don't think he ever understood why he was "more twisted than others" and honestly, his intelligence and observance doesn't do him any favors on that front; on the contrary, I think it made him more aware of the gaps between him and other people.
And I really have to wonder if his experiences around the segyein are all that different, emotionally speaking.
I mean, of course objectively they have to be, but… his adopted life was a matter of observing his new environment, feeling like an absolute stranger because he's another species, but learning and adapting as quickly as possible in order to make himself a desirable pet that would be kept around. His experience being sent to Anakt and put in a human group was, again, feeling like a stranger because he's different to others of his own species, but learning and adapting as quickly as possible, eventually making himself an "acceptable", charming, absolutely cagey but near-perfect man. He succeeded both times.
He never did get rid of that awareness of being "twisted", though. After all, he also didn't unlearn all his survival patterns or fix the weak spots in his emotional development. As much as he progressed, the sense of not quite belonging and the faint relationship with his own humanity stayed. (With one big exception, but I'll leave that thought for the end of this ramble.)
In a way, I feel like this is exactly what made him so successful in segyein society as far as he lived. So adaptable that beyond being a good pet, he could also be trusted with and hold down an actual job, decent (faked or not, still good) relationships with segyein and, if he had any chance of survival, probably the capacity to live in their society with moderate perks.
Being an adaptable stranger who belonged nowhere in the first place… I think it's what made him more willing, more capable and more okay with mixing with the segyein like that, paired with his intelligence to pull it off.
No human pride to sacrifice. Not much humanity in the first place.
Except for the one noteworthy exception that shifted Ivan's growth: his relationship with Till.
Not only did Till embody things that Ivan lacked, which fascinated him from the start, but through his bond with him Ivan developed a lot of those traits and sensitivities that constitute peak humanity. It's a bit of the "love will make you human" trope, but on god does it apply. Ivan learned to care, to feel and to love, at times selfishly, at times messily. Buth he got pretty good at it; so much that love made him selfless and sacrificial in the end. He became a little more human for the object of his feelings. It didn't't erase all his struggles or fix his issues at large, but it was a lot. Of course he'd die thanking Till.
Anyway, that's all I wanted to get off my chest!
Humanity is a tough theme with Ivan, so I hope my thoughts about it were an interesting read.
The usual disclaimer: I've talked about 1 aspect of Ivan in this post, which does not mean this is all there is to his character or that I aim to invalidate other aspects. Just rotating this one in my head.
I wonder why I've read so many theories that Hyuna had something more to do with Hyunwoo's death. Is it because of her guilt complex? I guess it might make people expect a twist that makes it her direct fault, but, thing is,
it doesn't have to BE her fault for Hyuna to experience guilt, yknow?
Guilt is a complex feeling and Hyuna's a very responsible person who leans towards taking care of others. She may very well feel guilty just cause she kept Luka so close without realizing he was a threat, with the ill feelings he was harboring towards her brother. She might feel like she caused Hyunwoo's death simply by not noticing something was off.
Maybe I'm missing something, though? Or maybe the idea of a plot twist that makes Hyuna directly at fault is just compelling to people. Just thinkin about it.
The themes of artificiality, perfection, holding the #1 spot (uniqueness), restricted individuality and competition with Luka hit VERY different considering the new official illustration.
My ass thought he was just in-vitro...!! This changes everything!!
Given that those themes were mainly around his character and only his owner seems remarkably inclined to be working on his pet-human in such a manner (the others have only talked about trade so far, buying their pet-humans as they come and then training them, while Heperu appears more stubborn to work on one project and ensure that it's perfect), I'm guessing it's only Luka who is... well, a result of cloning (at this point, that's what I gotta call it).
Still, the fact that this is a thing that can happen and happens in the universe of ALNST opens a lot of possibilities, huh. Really gotta think about this.
The only thing I can say right now is that, right, those themes around Luka hit different now, but so do the themes of freedom and "making this life your own" with Hyuna.
Nowhere, Black Sorrow and an interpretation of Ivan's love
Gonna talk a bit about Ivan's emotional state in Nowhere and how it… is mostly right there in Black Sorrow too, just in a slightly more matured manner. I've got some similarities and differences I wanna highlight!
(It'd be good to read my lil initial impressions on the release of Nowhere first, tho!)
Firstly, the key thing about interpreting the content of Nowhere is that it's a private song. Written for Ivan himself, composed with no outside input, never meant for public performance. Therefore, in it, we can trust that Ivan is expressing himself as freely as he can (through the lens of his stunted emotional development yet strong ability to look inward and rationalize, but still), which is a very rare occurrence, given that one of his biggest traits is being private and cagey. The song Nowhere is raw emotion for a change, an open display of his head and heart.
And it sounds like just that. We hear the result of Ivan trying a romantic, ballad-like love song, starting with that and presumably just scrapping it for the subsequent melodic, hopeless freestyle rap session about his loneliness, pain, sense of being fundamentally unlovable/unwanted, belief that his existence is devoid of value and his pessimism.
But the love he knows he feels for Till IS there, fantastically represented by the ballad-like part that stays in the background for the rest of Nowhere. And it's recognized for what it is.
… which is a big deal in itself!! Ivan talks down on his capacity for love a lot and would later call it a "shallow emotion", but he's way too analytical and knows himself too well to be avoiding that love is what it is. He damn well knows he's in love. And this song, the earliest song in his musical timeline, is pretty much the only place he says it out loud.
Followed, of course, by all those verses about his meaningless and inconsequential life, being overwhelmed yet persisting calmly/numbly, the light he can't look at and dreams/hopes that are unreachable from the beginning because everything (and himself) is stained. And yet, the recognition of his emotions stays running in the background; to be literal about it, his feeling of love stays present and sung no matter how deep he dives into his bleak outlook. Constant, steady, never drowned out. Two things that are truths to Ivan. It feels to me like precisely the two factors that govern his inner emotional life: the belief that he's not built for it and the knowledge that he loves, regardless.
And "this always happens to me" is the sentiment that results from all that, taking the spotlight as the general mood and baseline of Nowhere.
His belief that that the boy he was in the slums - a human who didn't feel like he belonged anywhere, neither an equal existence in relation to the segyein nor feeling part of humanity, a type of existence that's stained and rejected - is the same person he is in Anakt Garden and the ame persona he will continue to be. Of course, that applies to his love too. Not gonna work out because that's just how it is for someone like him, another piece of the "this always happens to me", destined to be unwanted.
(We've gotta remember that Nowhere was written at the time he was living in Anakt Garden [source: official post], the time where he developed his feelings for Till and tried to be close to him in ways that neither Till nor Ivan himself could understand properly - so, is it surprising at all that he'd continue to feel mismatched with other humans, stained, wrong and hopeless? My personal belief here is that what he experiences with Till echoes with what he experienced in the slums, all contributing to sustain his view and thoughts about himself as an individual. It's all the same. Again: this always happens to him.)
Now here's the thing: that defeatist attitude about loving Till is honestly the same one he carries over to Black Sorrow and is guided by throughout all of the main Alien Stage storyline.
Another thing that's very important to remember in regards to THAT is that Ivan never told Till how he felt in any type of way, he also didn't intend to show it or let it be known in way Till could interpret, understand and give an answer to [source: Vivimeng Q&A at the 2024 GAF event of which we only have attendee records]. He mostly fought, made up, played and spent time with Till. The most straightforward example of "acting upon his feelings" we could refer to is when he asked Till if he wanted to kiss [source: official comic], which was absolutely not framed as a confession of romantic inclinations, but just as "something some kids in Anakt are doing". It was neither expressed nor understood for its true human meaning. Ivan never says anything because he has simply assumed that he's unlovable, considers himself rejected by default (he's aware Till likes Mizi, but it's been made clear that this is mostly irrelevant to him, Till could love anybody or no one at all and he'd still have his pessimistic outlook because he considers himself the problem [source: GAF event Q&A again]) and leaves it at that. Around the segyein, he even goes out of his way to protect either Till, the privacy of his own feelings or the nature of love (as one of the few freedoms pet-humans have) by giving the impression that they're not that close and Till is not that important to him [source: Ivan interview from the Alien Stage Patreon, specifically these bits].
With that said, let's recall Black Sorrow.
It's inevitably different because it's not the raw and fully honest Ivan, but a song meant for performing, for an audience and for the competition. Still, it's his character introduction song and it's the one that tells us his viewpoint on Till. And in it, his definition of love is already, well, that it's "his black sorrow". A feeling surrounded by darkness, love for someone unreachable, the knowledge that it ends in a "cold spot stained with blood", not meant to work out for him in any way. Just as he thought at the time of Nowhere.
Because that always happens to him. He thinks that way in Black Sorrow, he thought that way in Nowhere, he still thinks that way in Cure.
But there's one thing that's extremely different between Black Sorrow and Nowhere! And I think it's an important aspect of Ivan that the new song and the new opportunity for character analysis allow us to bring forward.
It's in this little moment, the prelude to the climax of Black Sorrow:
When the first point tally is coming, no matter when you pause the video, Ivan's points are gonna be the same as Marty's. Unlike in Blink Gone, with Luka shown to be leading and Till falling in second place, Ivan and Marty don't know how it's going. But they'll get their final count soon, so this is the point where things need to get real serious. And it's the point when – as he watches the set's falling stars – Ivan dives into his most painful but also very important memory with Till. Through which we reach the song's climax, his performance turns much more emotional and he ultimately crushes Marty's score by a great margin.
What I'm trying to say is: in Black Sorrow, Ivan is in a very similar place as he was in Nowhere, in regards to his emotions and his love. We can assume he's more accustomed to it. But most of all, he's purposefully tapping into his feelings (both his love and his pain), drawing strength from them to deliver a winning performance. It's like opening his chest up and reaching into his heart, yes, but it's also done in a very controlled manner, because as soon as he's able, Ivan composes himself. When he finishes performing, he's his usual calm self again.
(Writing this I realize I'll need another post to dive deeper into Black Sorrow alone to cover some more points that are unique to the song, so I'll leave that for later.)
And that's the aspect of his character that I think is so important to highlight, the fact that he just… know himself so well. And how, despite viewing himself negatively in some ways, he also greatly accepts himself.
Nowhere is a very downbeat song, of course we're all face down in puddles of tears for Ivan, but him? I think it'd be… in a way, misjudging and underestimating him to settle on a very depressive or fully self-loathing view of him. Because he's pessimistic, but in a rational, "that's exactly how things are" kinda way. He looks down on what he considers his bad sides, but also keeps them close and doesn't hesitate to use all of his skills and traits. He's hurting, but he remains collected and undefeated by his various pains. He's emotionally vulnerable but also SO full of sentiment, determined, clever, capable of great acts of gentleness and dedicated as few will ever be.
And, when it comes to his love for Till, his belief that it's doomed to be unrequited doesn't stop him from continuing to feel that way, continuing to look after Till, drawing strength from his love when needed and ultimately do what must be done to push for Till's victory in Cure.
That's all for now! Please remember that these are only my views and that for this piece I focused on interpreting Ivan's love in particular in the context of Nowhere tied to Black Sorrow, so other themes are not as covered (not because they're not important in Nowhere or his whole character, of course) and even most of the nature of that same love is also not covered. I'll continue to write more analysis posts if possible.
A list of things I can now infer properly about Ivan's Nowhere!!
Now that the song is officially out and a bit of context about it was posted on Alien Stage's official page, here's some collected thoughts and things:
+ We now know this was recorded at some point in Ivan's time in Anakt Garden, which makes it his earliest song. Stating the obvious but good to have confirmation that this expression of his feelings came way before what he wrote in Black Sorrow.
+ Ivan did compose and write for himself independently, which he previously wasn't shown to be inclined to, so it's nice to know too.
+ Being a private song that he did intend to keep that way (as he hid or discarded the CD), it makes sense that Nowhere is much more openly emotional, vulnerable and defeatist than the latter Black Sorrow, which was made with public performance in mind.
+ Ivan has always been cagey about his feelings, but knowing the context of Nowhere (personal, private, done without outside input), it turns out it IS the raw contrast between his feelings of love and the impression that he's unlovable/only knows how to love wrongly anyway/destined to be unwanted (what he started with at the intro vs what he went with for the rest).
+ My doubts about some of the self-deprecating parts are now cleared up!!
I was wondering if the bits about his "disgusting teeth" and "cruel lips" were a general expression of guilt for selfishly kissing Till in Cure, but having a timeframe for when he wrote this song, it seems more likely that Ivan wrote that over the guilt of WANTING to kiss Till in the first place. Might be related to the disgust Till showed him when first learning what kissing was; it would make sense that it resulted in Ivan feeling twisted/guilty.
I think those are all my first realizations / impressions. Gonna write a proper, larger interpretation piece on this song and contrast between Ivan's emotional state here vs Black Sorrow later!!
@luzon-dove sorry to tag/reply unannounced but this was just funny and nice to see HAHAHA thank you for the welcome!!!!
I indeed have not posted in ages GSDDHSD had a couple of wayyyyy too busy work years, but I got into ALNST a couple months ago. Just quietly went through it and said "holy fucking shit" to myself LMAO. BUT I NEED TO POST ABOUT IT SO HERE I AM!!!!
A list of things I can now infer properly about Ivan's Nowhere!!
Now that the song is officially out and a bit of context about it was posted on Alien Stage's official page, here's some collected thoughts and things:
+ We now know this was recorded at some point in Ivan's time in Anakt Garden, which makes it his earliest song. Stating the obvious but good to have confirmation that this expression of his feelings came way before what he wrote in Black Sorrow.
+ Ivan did compose and write for himself independently, which he previously wasn't shown to be inclined to, so it's nice to know too.
+ Being a private song that he did intend to keep that way (as he hid or discarded the CD), it makes sense that Nowhere is much more openly emotional, vulnerable and defeatist than the latter Black Sorrow, which was made with public performance in mind.
+ Ivan has always been cagey about his feelings, but knowing the context of Nowhere (personal, private, done without outside input), it turns out it IS the raw contrast between his feelings of love and the impression that he's unlovable/only knows how to love wrongly anyway/destined to be unwanted (what he started with at the intro vs what he went with for the rest).
+ My doubts about some of the self-deprecating parts are now cleared up!!
I was wondering if the bits about his "disgusting teeth" and "cruel lips" were a general expression of guilt for selfishly kissing Till in Cure, but having a timeframe for when he wrote this song, it seems more likely that Ivan wrote that over the guilt of WANTING to kiss Till in the first place. Might be related to the disgust Till showed him when first learning what kissing was; it would make sense that it resulted in Ivan feeling twisted/guilty.
I think those are all my first realizations / impressions. Gonna write a proper, larger interpretation piece on this song and contrast between Ivan's emotional state here vs Black Sorrow later!!
Hii am working on a twt thread about the link between tokyo rev and religion so I wanted to know if it's okay to use your posts as a reference (witch credit of course) for some parts of it. Thank you!
Heyo!! Yeah, of course!! As long as there's credit I'll be very happy that my posts are useful!
If you want to share the thread when it's done I'll be happy to read it, too!
Informative reminders about LIDENFILMS (Tokyo Revengers' animation studio):
In light of the TR season 4 announcement, here's some facts I happen to know about LIDENFILMS and would like to share:
- It's a small studio that only began operations in 2012.
- As far as has been observed, treats their workers fairly and gives them a reasonable/humane amount of work.
- Unafraid of animating LGBT content on mainstream shounen anime for TV!! Has handled TR very respectfully in this aspect. - Has workers so content that they have the will and time to be in the TR fandom too, drawing fanart and enjoying the characters outside studio time. I believe this is always a good sign.
- Has staff that cares greatly about the material. I've personally read directors giving extra contemplation to scenes, audio staff celebrating getting an emotional scene just right, and various expressions of effort and passion. I also believe this is a good sign.
LIDENFILMS also:
- Is heavily criticized for not having more high-budget time-consuming animation.
- Is often mocked for not being on par with high-budget shows in terms of visual detail.
- Still fits in wonderfully animated moments, just within constraints of their reasonable work times and manpower. Which, unfortunately but realistically, isn't every shot every episode.
- Again: in a gargantuan anime industry that sadly has NEVER been able to have animators unionize, as far as research shows, provides fair treatment.
- Again: goes places where TV-aired series/shounen do not regularly go. TR streams on Disney+ and the studio isn't on the best economic grounds and they STILL handle things that usually result in enormous industry pressure, such as lgbt themes.
where did shinichiro go during his stay in the philippines?
an. an interesting (and really quick) insight into the story between japan and the philippines included in tokyo revengers! inspired by this @tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang's post. i saw as i did my research that some people already knew where it was, but without further explanation as to why or any add-ups, so i'll bring what i know to tumblr!
cw: tr spoilers, big analysis post, mentions of war & rape
so! manila. mostly known because that's where mikey asks takemichi to meet him in the future and unfortunately dies in one of the bad timelines (chapter 116, black dragon's arc).
but why manila?
that's a fairly easy question. the answer is given three chapters before: this is where shinichiro found the parts for the twin babu bikes. mikey clearly says he wants to go there in the future, probably because that's one of the last places he can associate with his big brother and hasn't been to yet.
the follow-up question is: what was shinichiro doing there?
the manga doesn't give us a clear answer. since izana is half-philipino, we can assume he went there to get more information about his brother's roots: who was his real mother? did he have a family who knew about him there?
this is where things get interesting. because while that was a nice gesture, shinichiro had surely no idea on where to start. his father was dead, karen kurokawa was nowhere to be found and grandpa sano is a useless old hag who never ever served the plot (confirmed by where shinichiro went because it didn't make much sense), leaving him without any info he could use to start looking for izana's potential relatives.
so he turned to a place he knew in the philippines: the corregidor island in manila's bay.
why would shin know about the corregidor island? surprising answer: world war two.
i did not know about it until i did some research for this post (!! you can call me uncultivated), but japan occupied the philippines (among other countires) during the world war two. i did a good amount of research, but i struggled understanding it all (esp because i find wikipedia's navigation confusing on the topic), so i just copy-pasted some parts that hopefully, if my selection is good, explain globally what happened. if you are interested on the topic, i do recommend you to do your own research.
the philippines campaign, also known as the battle of the philippines or the fall of the philippines, was the invasion of the american territory of the philippines by the empire of japan and the defense of the islands by united states and the philippine armies during world war ll.
the japanese planned to occupy the philippines as part of their plan for a "greater east asia war" in which their southern expeditionary army group seized sources of raw materials [in malaya and the netherlands east indies]. captain ishikawa shingo, a hard-liner in the imperial japanese navy, had toured the philippines and other parts of southeast asia in 1936, noting that these countries had raw materials japan needed for its armed forces. this helped further increase their aspiration for colonizing the philippines.
the battle of the philippines resulted from the invasion of the philippine commonwealth by the empire of japan in 1941-42 and the defense of the archipelago by filipino and american troops. this battle resulted in a japanese victory.
(see: battle of bataan). after the flight of the philippine government and the end of the battle bataan on 9 april 1942, the japanese controlled the entire northern part of the philippine archipelago, with the exception of the island of corregidor. the capture of the island was also the condition for the japanese to ensure control of manila bay.
(see: battle of corregidor). corregidor (which included fort mills) was a u.s. army coast artillery corps position defending the entrance to manila bay, part of the harbor defenses of manila and subic bays. it was defended by 11,000 soldiers. some could reach corregidor via the baatan peninsula, where they had escaped the japanese attack. the 59th regiment was able to repel japanese air attacks, shooting down numerous planes. the older stationary batteries with fixed mortars and immense cannon, for defense from attack by sea, were easily put out of commission by japanese bombers. the american soldiers and filipino scouts defended the small fortress until they had little left to wage a defense. on december 29, 1941, the japanese carried out a strategic bombing raid on corregidor, destroying the hospital. until the end of april, the filipino and american defenders of the island resisted attacks by japanese aircraft, which inflicted 614 bombings on them, for a total of 365 tons of explosives. from april 28, the bombings increased in intensity. beginning on may 1, japanese artillery also began firing from bataan. early in 1942, the japanese air command installed oxygen in its bombers to fly higher than the range of the corregidor anti-aircraft batteries, and after that time, heavier bombardment began.
the capture of corregidor marked the final victory of the japanese in the philippines, but contributed, like the battle of bataan, to cost them precious time, handicapping their strategy in the pacific ocean region.
4,000 of the 11,000 filipino and american prisoners were then paraded by the japanese in the streets of manila. several thousand were sent to labor camps (see: baatan death march) and numerous women were forced into sexual slavery by the imperial japanese armed forces (see: comfort women and asia women's fund)
corregidor was recaptured in another battle in 1945, during the liberation of the philippines. a pacific war memorial was later built on corregidor, commemorating the resistance of american and filipino soldiers.
first of all, i really reccomend you the asia women's fund digital museum for information related to comfort women—if it something you can stomach. second of all, i think it's a great addition that wakui included a reference to this in the manga, even if it is in such a discreet way. the corregidor hospital (specific place where takemitchy finds mikey) is very much drawn the same way as it looks in real life, but it is specified nowhere in the series where this is or why this place is chosen, and yet it holds a very important role in japanese history.
(pics from dailytakemitchi on twt, og post + google maps location)
though it is true that japan is known for not recognizing it's war crimes (see: nanjing massacre); certainly here an apology to the philippines was made, but only seventy-two years after the incident, so this issue was most likely very taboo by the time shin went there (which must have been between the time period where he met izana in the orphanage and their fight. judging by shin's haircut (we are working with very little information here ok but he didn't had his punch perm when we see him fiding the bikes so i believe it is around the time he askd mikey if he would like to have an older brother), i'd say 2000-2003ish, when izana was in juive. thanking the gods for this izana's timeline post btw, i actually need one with everyone's tls please-). philipino people were, from what i have understood, a pretty consequent part of the population in the 2000s for the reasons i mentionned just before. wakui must have met a few in his bossozoku days, and from them comes izana. i really like the fact that every one of the inclusions in the manga come from his real-life experience, it adds a lot to his whole universe!!
so yeah, if shin came there, it is probably because he did some research by himself on the philippines &this ended up being one of the first places that came up and catched his attention. like i said, it is likely that he went to the philippines looking for izana's relatives, but it strikes me as weird that he went there since the corregidor island has nothing but ruins to offer. maybe he just did some tourism on his way.
this whole trip didn't end up giving him any more information on izana's family. we don't actually know if izana's mother was in the philippines; karen does say that he is the son of her ex-husband and a filipino woman, but she herself is american and lives in japan. important to note that the ex-husband in question is not makoto sano! i personally had a hard time understanding that(oᗜo;)
this place is said to be haunted by the ghosts of filipino, american and japanese soldiers who died there, especially in the hospital. as for today, it is possible to visit the location, and there are vlog-type articles of people who went there, some quick youtube summaries and a few videos like "spending the night in this haunted island😱😱"
aaand this is pretty much all i had to say about this!! i haven't adressed the twin bikes because it'll be for another post. this post might not be much, esp taking in consideration how much time i took to post it(ᵕ—ᴗ—) but i had fun writting it! hopefully this post will find it's public. if you are still here, thank you so much for reading the whole thing!! i'll be posting some more tr posts like this one, so stay tuned. ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )
